A trip to the animal park

I've been a little reticent with the blog postings lately. I'm just going to blame the heat. It seems like a likely cause of my laziness lethargy, ok let's just go with lack of diligence on the writing front. Plus, the heat is a scapegoat that can't talk back, so I'm safe to cast my aspersions without fear of retribution.

So, to rectify the situation, we're going to do a little retroactive blogging today. Here goes:

A couple weeks ago, we made a road trip to Wichita to visit with Cory's grandfather and the whole McCrillis side of the family. (Why is it every single time I drive to Wichita, The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" plays in a loop in my head the whole time? Does this happen to anyone else?) If you can believe it, Wichita was actually even hotter than Kansas City. Although, the difference between 98 degrees and 105 degrees is really quite negligible in the grand scheme of things. But, despite the heat, we decided to go explore the Tanganyika Wildlife Park. It's smaller than a typical zoo, but you get to see the animals much closer up.


We went as soon as the park opened at 9am. Amazingly, it wasn't stifling, yet. As long as you stayed in the shade, anyway. We started off heading straight to the giraffes. And, you want to know something great about going to there with a grandma? She buys all sorts of tokens for Molly to use throughout the park. Of course, now any time I take Molly somewhere, she will probably expect the same type of treatment. I guess I'll just have to explain that that is what grandmas are for.

So, when we got to the giraffes, Molly was able to use her tokens to feed the giraffe some lettuce. How awesome is that?

Alright, next up, Molly got to use some tokens to feed the bunnies and tortoises. Charlotte was terrified of the bunnies and clung to her Aunt Amber as if her life depended on it. Apparently, Cory has let her watch one too many killer bunny movies.

Next, we got to go visit the kangaroos. Cory and I tried to tell the girls all about when we traveled to Australia and saw kangaroos in their natural habitat. Molly was not impressed with our trip down memory lane. She did, however, like the kangaroos that were right in front of her.

Next up, camel rides! Yes, I know. You'd think you would have to be somewhere in the Middle East (or at least somewhere covered in sand) to get to ride a camel. But, no, you can do it right in the middle of Wichita. Who knew? Luckily, Aunt Amber was nice enough to offer to ride with Molly so Molly wouldn't have to ride alone.

We even got to see some penguins. It was amazing how close we were. If penguins could talk, we would've been eavesdropping on their conversations. Which, I'm sure would have involved lots of giddy squealing about the upcoming Happy Feet 2 movie. At least, that's what I imagine penguins talking about. 

Despite the fact that we were visiting the park during the middle of Charlotte's morning nap time, she was a pretty good sport. She pointed at every animal  and yelled, "Puppy!" Clearly, we need to work on our flashcard zoo animals. Toward the end of the visit, she hitched a ride on daddy's shoulders.

We left the park by 11am. It was already climbing into the mid to high 90s by that time. We were all appropriately sweaty and cranky. But, we all had a great time while were there. Later that night, we had dinner with the whole McCrillis family. There you go, all cleaned up:

So, that was our trip down to Wichita. The next morning, we headed back to KC. Short and sweet.

Take that heat! I'm beating my lethargy and getting caught up, despite the fact that it is 101 degrees today. But, now that you mention it, I think it's about time I took a nap ...